Although this research achieved its goals, there were a few limitations that I inevitably encountered. I expand on three of these limitations, namely language issues, time constraints as well as the sample size.
114 Language issues
Although this was not a major problem to all of the participants, it became apparent to me in the process of the interviews that some of the participants could not fully express themselves in English solely because it is probably their second language or even third language. I feel they could have benefitted immensely had the interviews been conducted in a language that we could all understand, Sesotho. I acknowledge this language limitation in this study.
Time constraints
The available time within which this study was conducted is another constraint that I would like to acknowledge. I conducted the study at a time when the school was busy with their trial exams and this proved to somewhat disturb the school proceedings, although not substantially.
Sample size
One of the schools that I had initially thought would participate in the study failed to because the school principal said he was insanely busy. I feel this robbed me of a great opportunity to get rich information and compare their findings with their counterparts in case study B. Their reluctance meant I was left only with four participants for the study and this I feel is too small a sample size if I am to get a better understanding of what leads great successes in challenging circumstances. I therefore acknowledge I could have drawn on other data collection methods in order to do a more in-depth analysis.
Recommendations
In this section, I provide the recommendations for the principals facing challenging circumstances and for further research. The case study school is an exceptional school
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that continues to be a beacon of hope for many of the schools in challenging circumstances. It is exceptional in that it has continued to produce outstanding results despite multiple challenges—challenges that others have hardly overcome. One of the striking features of the school to emerge out of the data was that of collegiality. It also became clear that the school highly regarded the importance of effective use of the contact time as one of their key ingredients of their outstanding achievements over the years. The school principal also hinted that collaborations with the learners‘ parents were an important factor in ensuring every learner‘s academic success. The case study school has shared with us some of the suggestions which may be helpful for instructional leaders in similar schools.
The following recommendations for principals are grounded in the study findings. Recommendations regarding professional development
One of the concerns that emerged from the data is that professional development is highly rated in the school but the major problem was there seemed to be a sense of apathy. By this I mean there was an over-reliance on the district or provincial education department to arrange professional development workshops for them as opposed to initiating the process. While there is nothing wrong this this approach, it is advisable that the school adopt a new approach. Mizell (2010) suggests that schools should explore other avenues of professional development such as forming intra-school professional development activities whereby teachers as per their subject specialisations can arrange intra-departmental workshops in which they share ideas on how to improve their subject content knowledge and pedagogy.
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Recommendation regarding teacher and learner moral support
As mentioned earlier, the principal of the school extended his instructional leadership to supporting the emotional needs of his staff and leaners. This is a plausible leadership practice; however, if it is not wisely approached, the principal could end up being overly overwhelmed by the problems that his learners and teachers bring forth. In consequent, this could lead to chaos in the school whereby everyone is in an unstable emotional state. I suggest the principal apply for the stationing of a full-time social worker at the school so that they can unburden the principal in this regard.
Recommendation regarding partnerships with other surrounding schools Levin and Fullan (2008) advise that one of the many ways in which a systemic change in education can reach to other schools is if there is a sense of collaboration among the schools in the same district. Similar suggestion is made to the case study school. In an effort to see other schools in the same location as the case study school reach the levels of success that it has, I see it fit if the case study school can help a few other schools in their district with tools on how to perform better in their academics.
Recommendations for further research
It is no doubt school leadership in South Africa‘s township schools remains relatively under-researched (see Mbokazi, 2013). It is, therefore, imperative for education researchers to look into researching more about this area, in particular successful instructional leadership practices in schools facing multiple deprivations.
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1. This study focused exclusively on successful instructional leadership practices in a township secondary school. Thus, it will be useful if other future studies equally focus on successful instructional leadership in primary schools facing multiple deprivations 2. While it is useful to focus on township schools, it is equally important for future studies to look at successful leadership practices in rural settings. The hope is this sort of approach will provide a broader scope of what leads to successful instructional leadership practices in different contexts of South Africa.
Chapter Overview
What I intend to do in this section is to offer closing remarks on each of the research questions for this study. Before that, it is best to start with what I aimed to achieve through this study. Mainly, this study sought to understand how instructional leadership was able to act as a catalyst for consistent and commendable academic performance of one QwaQwa township secondary school faced by challenging circumstances. The findings contained in this study reveal that the case study school has shown that despite discouraging circumstances that some of our schools operate under; it is still possible to overcome them and produce the best possible academic results.
How might the theory and practice of instructional leadership be improved in schools facing multiple deprivations?
Because the study only focused on one school, it will be naïve to provide conclusive and general suggestions on how the theory and practice of instructional leadership can be improved in schools facing multiple deprivations. Nonetheless, what has emerged in this study is each one of the schools facing multiple deprivations probably faces a set of unique challenges that require a different approach from their instructional leaders. For instance, in the case study school, there were no major disciplinary problems and
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vandalism was not evident at all—a feature that is dominant in many of these schools. This can be the case in another school in the same context and this would mean their principal may have to prioritise restoring discipline in the school.
What instructional leadership strategies are commonly practiced in these schools and with what effects?
The study found that there were five dominant instructional leadership practices that were evident in the case study school, namely continuous professional development, goal setting, effective use and availability of instructional materials, effective use of the instructional time and strong focus on the management of teaching and learning. In consequent, these findings strongly suggest that any school facing multiple deprivations and it is academically underperforming will probably benefit from perfecting these five features of instructional leadership.
In what ways are instructional leadership practices perceived to enhance learner outcomes in these schools?
Lastly, this study has revealed that there was a strong link between the above mentioned instructional leadership practices and the learner academic outcomes. One can, thus, conclude that one of the reasons why the case study school has consistently outperformed its peers was their constant focus on collectively setting clear and achievable goals, prioritising teaching and learning, ensuring that the necessary instructional materials were readily available and effectively used, ensuring that teachers and learners respected the instructional time and the principals exposing their teachers and other support staff members to different professional development initiatives.
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